My, Private How You've Changed
by The Young and Free Dragon
Summary: Skipper has always been Private's father. But when his biological father comes for his child, how will the team deal with a loss of their brother, and will Skipper allow the youngster to be taken away?
1. Prologue: Relations and Revelations

**Another idea I've come up with. I promise to get all my stories updated, but for some reason I seem to work better whenever I have a variety of things to update. WARNING: Song quoted in this chapter contains language viewers may find offensive.**

MY, PRIVATE HOW YOU'VE CHANGED

BY THE YOUNG AND FREE DRAGON

Doubt cam over me

What kind of father would I be?

I knew the time had come to stand up and be a man

To change the face of my life

With your future in mind

Time to do what was right

A new beginning

-_My Child _by Disturbed

* * *

PROLOGUE: RELATIONS AND REVELATIONS

What's goin' on today?

Why must it be this way?

We're goin' nowhere

And we're still knocking the need to bow down

They think we're all the same

And always we're to blame

For shit I think is lame

It's time to stop the game

I think it's time to pay

For everything you make me say

-_Y'all Wanna Single _by KoRn

Skipper stared at Private for a moment, debating weather he'd heard correctly or not. The little penguin looked up at him expectantly. The leader's mind raced. Had Private just asked what sex was? No, not that. Had he asked why Skipper didn't have a mate? No. Had he asked when he could strike out on his own? No… No the question had to be repeated. The only thing that Skipper could register was that it was something on level with these questions.

"Uh… Sorry Private… What did you say?" Skipper asked.

"I asked; "Are you my father, Skippah?"" Private said.

So that was it… The question that Skipper had hoped Private would never ask. He thought for a moment. Was he Private's father? He didn't think so. After all these years of treating the lad as a son, it just seemed natural to say yes. But could he lie to the youngster about something this important? The boy had the right to know how his father was after all… but… Fear was clenching Skipper's heart. He didn't like to think of the one who would call Private his son. The man had hardly been a father. Skipper had taken the position whenever it…

_No… Never go there again. _He thought, blocking the memory from his mind. What harm would it do to tell Private that he was his father? Private was never going to see his real old man anyway.

"Y-… Yes I am, Private." Skipper finally said.

"Really?" Private sounded almost dubious.

"Of course. What would make you think otherwise?"

"Well, you never call me son or anything like that."

"Is there some sort of law that says I have to?" Skipper tried to sound like he was angered at Private's doubting.

"Well… no… you just always refer to us as your brothers, but you act like a brother and a father to me so… I was just wondering…"

"A father can be your best friend. There's nothing wrong with him being like a brother."

"I suppose not…" Private said, thoughtfully. After a pause, he smiled widely at Skipper and hugged him. "Thanks for clearing that up for me, father."

Skipper gave a bittersweet smile and patted Private's back. "No problem… son..."

But there was something strange and new about the hug that Skipper couldn't place his flipper on. Something he wasn't sure he'd ever felt before.

As the little penguin let go and waddled off, he couldn't help but wish the hug could have lasted longer. Something drew him towards the little one. Perhaps a new found, fatherly love? Skipper waddled into Kowalski's lab and tapped the intellect on the shoulder. The tall penguin turned and looked at Skipper before looking back down at the strange gizmo he was tinkering with.

"What is it, Skipper?" He asked.

"Does Private seem… I don't know… a little more grown up to you?" Skipper asked.

"Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering."

"I suppose he is."

"Do you think he's old he enough to train for a higher rank?" Skipper asked.

"Well, he's excelled at everything we've put before him so far. I think he's ready."

"Do you think he could one day be the skipper?" Skipper asked.

Kowalski looked over his shoulder at Skipper for a moment before looking back down at the thing he was toying with.

"Well, I don't know where you plan to go, but I'm next in line for that job."

"Well, he is going to out live you and me."

Kowalski once again looked back at Skipper, with a mixture of looks in his face.

"I suppose so… Yes, I suppose he could be in charge one day."

"When would you suggest we start training him?"

"You're the leader. You tell me."

"You're the strategist."

Kowalski sighed and picked up his clipboard and began calculating. After a minute, he placed the clipboard down.

"My calculations say that next week would be an opportune time."

"Why's that?"

Kowalski heaved an annoyed sigh. "If you're going to question my options, then why did you ask for them?"

"Sorry, just asking."

"Next week will be warm and the zoo will be closed while all the mammals are vaccinated."

"Alright sounds good."

* * *

**Quick introduction. Please review.**


	2. Chapter 1: Memory Blank

**Next chapter. Please enjoy and review.**

MY, PRIVATE HOW YOU'VE CHANGED

BY THE YOUNG AND FREE DRAGON

Doubt came over me

What kind of father would I be?

I knew the time had come to stand up and be a man

To change the face of my life

With your future in mind

Time to do what was right

A new beginning

-_My Child _by Disturbed

* * *

CHAPTER ONE: MEMORY BLANK

Images of sorrow

Pictures of delight

Things that go to make up a life

-_Home by the Sea _by Genesis

_"Why are you leaving, Mommy?" The young penguin squeaked as he watched his mother walk away from their home. She had only made it a few feet and stopped and turned, her eyes shimmering. She came over to the penguin and gripped his shoulders, trying to be comforting but her flippers were shaky._

"_Skipper… Mommy's going away for… awhile." She finally said._

"_Where to?"_

"_Do you remember when I spent all that time away from you while you were an egg? And… Daddy… took care of you…?" She tripped over the mention of Skipper's father._

"_Yes."_

"_It's like that."_

"_So you'll be back with food?" Skipper's eyes brightened and a small childish grin formed on his beak._

"_N-No sweetie… I'm going to be gone a longer time than that…" _

"_How long?" Skipper's face fell._

"_I don't know."_

"_I can't go long without food, Mommy!" Young Skipper cried._

"_Daddy's going to feed you…" His mother said._

"_Ah," Skipper pouted. "It never tastes the same."_

"_You'll have to make do. After all, if you want to go into the military like you've always dreamed of, you have to make do with what you're given."_

"_I understand." Skipper responded, unhappy that he'd lost._

_ His mother kissed his forehead and stood up turning away and moving back down the snowy hill. She turned once and looked into his eyes._

"_Please don't cry, dear." She said, though Skipper thought she was the one who was going to cry._

"_Soldiers don't cry." Skipper replied, giving her a smile and saluting her. _

_She disappeared into the swirl of white._

* * *

Skipper snapped back into reality then. He looked around to make sure no one had watched him, for he could feel the warmth behind his eyes, and the wetness at the corner of his eyes. He quickly wiped the forming tears away and tried to wipe the memory away as well. But it stuck. That had been the last he'd seen of his mother. This was of course, the very day his father had been eaten by a leopard seal. His mind snapped him into the flashback before he could stop it.

* * *

"_Daddy!" Little Skipper yelled out over the dark water. It always seemed so inviting and he was always trying to keep himself from jumping into the blue wonder. It was like he was flying whenever he was in the sea, it always made him feel free. It was where his heart was at. But now, it seemed to scream at him to come and join his father, when he wasn't sure what was happening. Suddenly, blood began to surface on the water. It shimmered and spread like a stain over the glassy surface. But of course, this water was never calm. This was the sea and it was never still and serene. Skipper thought that was what he liked about it. It was a lot like him. _

_ But now his heart was racing, and suddenly his brother element was terrifying and he had to resist panic, which was screaming at him to move away from the edge and get far away from the traitor. But his father was out there somewhere. He screamed for him again, and as if in answer the sea began to swirl and he could tell something was moving up to the surface. But it was way to big a shadow to be his father and he only realized what it was seconds before it broke the surface. The sharp teeth snapped violently at him and he fell on his bum, crawling away from the seal. _

_ His thoughts snapped through the reality as he knew he was about to die and he thought of him friend Kowalski… his father who was surely dead… and his mother who had left only ten minutes before…_

"_Mommy!" He screamed. It might have been a vain cry, but she had waddled. Maybe she wasn't that far away. "Mommy help!" _

_The seal smacked him with its flipper as it tried to maneuver on the ice, and he was sent spinning toward the edge. Cracks were running through the relatively thin layer and his vision was blurring. He thought he saw his mother shape in the snow as his spinning head raised up. _

"_Mommy! Mommy, help me!" He shouted at the figure, if it was actually standing there. At the time he thought it was._

_But it made no movement and he knew there was no escape…_

* * *

He broke the trance of memories and shook his head, anger gripping him and sweat rolling down his brow. Angry at the seal? No, it was only doing what it had to do to survive. This fact had been lost on him at the time, but Kowalski had eventually convinced him otherwise, for his second lieutenant had been a huge preserve of species when he was young, and did anything he could to avoid violence. That had changed like Skipper's view of the seal. But his anger was different from that. It was irrational. He didn't know if his mother had actually stood there. He didn't know if she had left him to die. But if she had…? She actually did in truth. Leaving him as a chick, because she didn't get along with his father. If she loved him at all, she would have stayed, instead of leaving. She had to have known the memory would leave a permanent scar, and she had to have been around when the news was spreading of her husband's death… and how her chick did nothing but scream for his mother and hold onto his friend…

After a year of counseling from Kowalski, he was able to forget the memory. But just forget. Never get over it. How could he? And he probably would have, if his mother had returned him. He was her responsibility… and she had denied him… Unless of course, she had by some coincidence, been killed at that time as well. But he had been lost, waiting for her everyday until he was captured and brought to the zoo. Kowalski warned him that he shouldn't ever look for her. Why? Because he could relapse, or the truth would hurt. Both were grueling results, but there was something about finding her that made him stay up some nights and think of that little chick that had been orphaned that day. He hadn't even got to give his mother a proper goodbye. He often thought that if he could do that now, the seas of anger and depression would subside in his mind.

* * *

**A bit of my idea of what bright the penguins together. The plot will progress next chapter, and there will be more background to be covered. The memories will be broken up, so I hope to keep you guys guessing.  
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